Holy Roman Empire (Europa Universalis II)
The Holy Roman Empire (or HRE) was a confederation of German principalities. (You can read the real-world history at wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire.) Although it had a monarch, the monarch was elected and never wielded strong executive authority. In Europa Universalis II, the HRE is represented as a special title (Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire) that is held by the monarch of some country. The Emperor gains certain benefits which model his leadership of the Empire. Selection of the Emperor The initial Emperor is defined by the scenario. These are shown in the table to the right. When the current Emperor dies (that is, the monarch who is Emperor is replaced), or if the current Emperor's country is annexed, there will be an election which determines the new Emperor. This election is done automatically by the game. The voters are the electors of the Holy Roman Empire. The candidates for Emperor are the monarchs of all electors, as well as all Catholic monarchs (that is, monarchs of countries which have Catholicism as their state religion). The monarch of the country with the best overall diplomatic relations with the electors will be chosen. When a new Emperor is chosen, the game sends a message to that effect, for example, "December 10, 1437 : The Holy Roman Empire has elected Albert V of Austria as emperor." You can see the current Emperor on the map display using religion map mode: there is a special icon displayed around the normal capital icon indicating the Emperor. Benefits of being Emperor The Emperor's country benefits from his status in several ways. Most of the benefits accrue based on the number of "supportive electors" that the Emperor currently has. A supportive elector is a country: * in the set of electors of the HRE * with which the Emperor has good relations (relations >= 100). The following benefits apply to the country whose monarch is the Emperor: * its stability cost is reduced by 1% for each supportive elector. * its technology may be reduced by between 0.666% to nearly 2% for each supportive elector. However, this reduction is a part of the "tech speed modifier", which is capped both high and low (minimum 1.0, maximum 3.0). So, very small, or very large countries won't benefit. The per elector reduction is -0.02 of the tech speed multiplier; so the value of the tech speed multiplier matters in the percentage of the tech cost reduction seen. * it gains a bonus of 1 manpower from each supportive elector. * it gains a bonus of 2 ducats yearly (of monthly income) from each supportive elector. * if it is at war, it has military access in all provinces that are part of the HRE. The borders of the HRE can be seen on the religion map mode. As a Country The Holy Roman Empire is listed as a country in some of the game files, and has a coat of arms. It cannot, however, come into play in a Vanilla game. If it could come into play, its provinces would be dark yellow in normal games and light orange in fantasia games. They would be in the Latin techgroup. Its default policy sliders would be as follows: * Aristocracy 8 * Centralization 1 * Innovative 4 * Mercantilism 8 * Offensive 5 * Land 6 * Quality 5 * Serfdom 9 category:Europa Universalis II rules Category:Europa Universalis II HRE countries category:Europa Universalis II Non-playable countries